Influencer marketing is a must for any brand in 2025. More than half of marketers believe it will continue to be important, and about half plan to increase such spending in 2025. When more than 80% of customers say they trust influencer recommendations, tapping known personalities is a proven way to get more eyes on your brand.
But it’s not as simple as partnering with an influencer and watching the leads pour in. To make the most of influencer marketing, you need to partner with the right personalities. Traditional strategies are no longer sufficient to blow past your competitors. You need fresh, proven tactics.
Here are 13 influencer marketing and social media strategies that will elevate your brand, as well as pro tips and examples. Explore the influencer marketing strategies of top brands that will help you stand out.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. Define clear, measurable goals from day one
- 2. Identify the right creators
- 3. Leverage the power of micro & nano influencers
- 4. Turn influencers into long-term brand partners
- 5. Use influencers to create repurposable user-generated content (UGC)
- 6. Tap into creator licensing for paid amplification
- 7. Build campaigns around social-first trends
- 8. Diversify across platforms (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Pinterest)
- 9. Collaborate on product drops or co-branded collections
- 10. Use affiliate marketing to drive trackable sales
- 11. Test AI-generated influencers for low-risk pilots
- 12. Create custom discount codes and trackable links
- 13. Take advantage of branded hashtags
- Make the most of influencer marketing with Later
1. Define clear, measurable goals from day one
Setting the right influencer strategy for your brand hinges on your goals. You may want to:
Increase brand awareness
Generate more quality leads
Boost sales
Enhance your market position
Attract customers from your competitors
Whatever your objective, making it clear from the start will inform your influencer strategy. Set SMART goals, which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Setting a goal to generate more high-quality leads is a start, but it’s not specific or measurable. Instead of building a strategy around vague aims or a wish list, write out what you want to achieve in detail. You could reframe this goal to say: “We will increase high-quality leads by 30% by the end of the quarter.”
This clear objective will motivate your marketing team to research your target audience and create detailed buyer personas. Once you understand your target audience and their key pain points and behaviors, you can choose influencers who inspire high-quality leads from this customer pool to reach out.
SMART goals also impact your messaging strategy. You and your influencers can create content that resonates with your target audience to achieve your goals. Make the most of your influencer budget by being clear about what you hope to achieve from the outset.
Make your influencer campaigns more impactful by partnering with creators whose strengths best match your goals. Start with a list of qualities you want in your ideal creator.
Approach this like you would any other open position in your company. What skills and qualities do you want in a creator? Consider:
Their niche
Their target audience
Their brand personality and voice
Core values that align with your brand values
Finding the right candidate to fill your open positions is easier when you’re looking in the right places. So is finding new customers. Researching your target audience alongside your past campaigns will tell you where your customers are scrolling. Are they on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or some other app?
Knowing where your best customers are online helps you choose the right influencers for your campaign. You can partner with a TikTok personality with a million followers, but you won’t generate the best leads if most of your customers are over on Instagram.
Look for influencers in your niche with a loyal following. Choose creators whose followers best match your target demographics. Read through their posts and see how they engage with their followers. Customers value authenticity, so you want creators who fit your brand and seem like they would genuinely be interested in your product.
3. Leverage the power of micro & nano influencers
Influencer marketing is big business. Partnering with an influencer with millions of followers could cost you upwards of $2,500 per post. But you don’t always need that reach. Micro influencers and nano influencers may not connect with a million potential customers, but these personalities often serve smaller, more passionate niche audiences.
A micro influencer is a creator with between 5K and 25K followers on YouTube or 100K–500K on TikTok. A nano influencer is a personality with 1K–5K on YouTube or Instagram, or 10K–100K on TikTok.
These creators often target small but specific niches. For example, in the fashion realm, a micro or nano influencer might concentrate on mid-size fashion or sustainable fashion.
Because these influencers often have a more personal connection with their followers, their recommendations can carry more weight. Partnering with creators like these can feel more authentic, allowing you to build a genuine connection with their fan base. As creators grow in status, their sponsored posts can start to feel performative.
A micro influencer or nano influencer whose brand image fits in with your ideal customer base can give you a higher return on your investment, because more of their followers are listening. A recent study found that 48% of a nano influencer’s followers engaged with sponsored posts versus 26% of macro influencers. These creators give you targeted exposure for a lower budget.
4. Turn influencers into long-term brand partners
Sure, your brand gets a boost whenever someone tags you in a #sponsoredpost. But you can stretch your marketing budget by turning these one-offs into long-term partnerships. Instead of a mention of your brand in a random post that may or may not pop up on their followers’ feeds, you get a brand advocate.
Turning influencers or even loyal customers into brand ambassadors deepens your engagement while maintaining brand consistency. If you’re not already running a brand ambassador program, make a list of criteria for your ideal ambassador:
How many followers do they have?
Who is their audience?
Does their brand voice match yours?
Once you’ve defined your dream brand ambassador, set your budget for compensation. You can also add rewards or incentives such as free products or exclusive experiences for ambassadors who hit various milestones.
Consider recruiting your most successful partner creators to launch your program. Or partner with Later to find your perfect match.
When you launch your ambassador program, set clear expectations and develop a thorough onboarding process. Your most successful brand ambassadors will know what you expect from them in terms of post frequency, tone, and voice. Follow up with your brand ambassadors and interact with their content regularly to build a relationship.
Use customer feedback and post engagement to refine your brand ambassador program as you go.
5. Use influencers to create repurposable user-generated content (UGC)
UGC—such as videos, social media posts, and reviews—is effective word-of-mouth advertising in the digital age. Customer research shows that 40% of shoppers rank UGC as “very important” in their decision-making.
UGC also saves you time, because you can repurpose it. Opting for original content will keep your page informative and engaging, but throwing in the occasional repurposed post keeps your posting schedule consistent without eating into your time. Reshare influencer content on your own socials or incorporate their posts into your ads.
Build trust with your audience by using influencer posts as testimonials or adding these posts to your in-store displays. Want to save even more time? Use an influencer’s video to create a carousel post or adapt their post from one platform and post it on another.
For example, if one of your influencers is getting a positive response on TikTok, optimize the video for Instagram and post it to your Reels. Make sure you tag the creator so they can build their audience on the new platform while promoting your brand.
A single content management tool like Later simplifies this process so you can repurpose with ease and move on to other digital marketing tasks.
6. Tap into creator licensing for paid amplification
Do you already have a list of favorite creators? Simplify the content creation process with creator licensing. This is a strategy in which creators give you permission to advertise using their social media accounts. You create and pay for the ad using a creator’s handle, which improves your reach.
The difference between creator licensing and traditional paid ads is that you have creative control, and the ads appear more organic than traditional sponsored posts. Instead of paying the creator to make a post, you develop the ad and publish it yourself on their account.
Also known as whitelisting, this form of advertising lets you build trust with an influencer’s audience with an organic post. Start the process by reaching out to an influencer or their brand manager. When you reach an agreement, you will get access to their account.
This ad strategy pays off. Companies that work directly with a creator by licensing their social media feed see 2-3x higher ROI on these posts.
To try your hand at whitelisting, make a list of creators with sizeable followings whose brand aligns with your values and messaging. Look for influencers with a track record for engagement. Before launching a partnership, develop a contract with clear terms and conditions for usage rights, exclusivity, types of posts you’ll create, and other important considerations.
8. Diversify across platforms (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Pinterest)
It’s doubtless true that some of your customer base is chronically online, scrolling multiple social feeds every day. But your customers also have jobs, friends, families, and hobbies. Most of your potential customers have their favorite socials and check them more often than the others.
Reaching the right customers on the right platforms requires you to understand your target audience. Break your best customers into groups and research what they’re most likely to do online. Consider:
Demographics
Interests
Preferred content format
Analyze your social media analytics and make note of which were most successful. This will give you a sense of where your audience is hanging out online.
Round out your research with a competitor analysis. Which platforms are your competitors using to promote their businesses? How are they engaging with their audience?
Once you’ve narrowed down the where, compare each social media platform. Note the features and functionalities, and focus on the platforms that engage your audience in the way they prefer.
Focusing on a single platform doesn’t mean going dark on all the others. Using a platform like Later gives you the flexibility to distribute content across platforms.
Create a batch of posts at once and optimize them for each platform. For example, you might have to switch up your captions and hashtags when repurposing a TikTok for Instagram Reels. Later makes this easy. You can also schedule posts so your content goes up consistently even when you’re tackling other tasks.
As creators have gained traction on social media, they’ve also come to influence brands. Businesses of all sizes, from direct-to-consumer to Fortune 500s, have partnered with big personalities to promote product launches, company initiatives, and more.
For instance, McDonald’s recently launched limited-time specials inspired by popular personalities, including Travis Scott and BTS. Partnering with well-known influencers to promote a big launch generates hype. Choosing the right content creator can breathe new life into your brand.
Dunkin recently collaborated with Charli D’Amelio to attract new customers. The company branded her favorite order “the Charli” and had her promote it on TikTok. Since 2020, Dunkin has also worked with Sabrina Carpenter, Nick DiGiovanni, and Ice Spice.
When you find a unicorn influencer whose target audience aligns with your brand and who fits in your budget, consider collaborating on a product or line.
10. Use affiliate marketing to drive trackable sales
Expand your reach while turning your fans into your best salespeople through affiliate marketing. This strategy involves paying influencers a commission when their followers buy your product using a specialized promotional code.
Affiliate marketing is a win-win for you and the influencer. Instead of getting a single payment for their services, they get a commission for every successful sale. This strategy can motivate influencers to post about your brand more often. You can also track your most successful affiliates by measuring conversions for each unique promo code.
Make your affiliate program desirable by offering affiliate discounts or bonuses. In your terms and conditions, outline the types of content you expect from your creators. Affiliate posts tend to perform better when they seem sincere and authentic. You don’t want to end up with affiliates who seem like they’re trying to talk customers into a timeshare.
When setting up your affiliate program, choose a flat fee structure, a commission-only structure, or a hybrid model. Using a hybrid model can be more enticing because the creator knows they’ll get paid even if they don’t make any sales. However, they will be motivated to do their best to make more money.
11. Test AI-generated influencers for low-risk pilots
AI is everywhere in modern digital marketing, and influencers are no exception. Using a meta influencer or an AI influencer instead of a real person can be cost-effective, and you aren't risking partnering with someone who’s going to cause a scandal and taint your brand later. However, most brands aren’t sure their customers trust AI and hesitate to use this strategy.
Meta influencers are virtual avatars or characters you create to promote your brand in the Metaverse. When you know your target audience is heavily engaged with virtual reality, this strategy makes sense.
AI influencers are computer-generated characters that look like real people to the degree AI can make them human. Running your campaigns with AI influencers is less expensive. It’s also great for testing different messaging and media strategies. Think of AI as a beta test before you launch a new campaign with a large influencer.
AI influencer tests highlight trends and strategies that worked for each campaign. Use them to A/B test different versions of the same ad to find the best hashtags and platforms before going live with an influencer.
Although AI isn’t poised to take the place of human content creators anytime soon, it’s still valuable. Use it to draft captions, create graphics, and analyze your distribution strategies. Then take the results to human influencers to achieve your goals.
12. Create custom discount codes and trackable links
Like other digital marketing strategies, you need to track your influencer campaigns to see if they’re successful. Adding custom discount codes and trackable links helps you attribute each sale to the right influencer.
These codes can also allow an influencer to create a sense of urgency among their followers. They can post a “limited time” offer using a special promo code. Their followers know the deal is short-lived and so click through the link as soon as possible.
Later integrates with Shopify and has a feature that generates customized codes. Set specific start and end dates so your discount codes will expire with the campaign. We customize single-use codes to each influencer to keep them from sharing codes. Your creators can also offer custom codes for free products and shipping.
Make the most of influencer marketing with Later
Influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere, so embrace it. Finding popular creators in your niche exposes you to a wider audience of potential customers. It also builds trust among your target audience.
In the past, major corporations partnered with celebrities to appeal to a new audience. Thankfully, influencer marketing is more accessible.
Optimizing influencer marketing strategies doesn't require creators with a Kylie Jenner-level following to successfully introduce your brand. Work smarter by working with micro and nano influencers. Turn your best customers into brand advocates with affiliate programs and specialized promo codes.
With so many influencers on the scene, though, starting out can be tricky. Let Later manage your influencer campaign strategy. We’re sitting on more than 10 years of proprietary creator data. We will assess your brand and make the best recommendations based on past results. We tailor influencer strategies to your goals.
Stop overthinking influencer marketing and let Later find the best partners for you. Schedule a demo today.
